For context, Phoebe and Pete first got together after she broke out in her Bridgerton role. They both wore the same “PD” necklace and broke up in August 2021.
Speaking to Elle as their latest cover star, Phoebe said that she didn’t expect to become so famous post-Bridgerton: “I was really naïve. I don’t think there was a period of my life as an actress when I thought about fame. My only goal was to work as an actress and not have to have any other jobs.”
The naivety, she said, translated into her relationship with Pete. “I didn’t think anyone would care,” she said of the public’s interest. “I was just being a young woman and dating, and somehow that provokes a conversation. There were lots of hard lessons I had to learn through basically just having a personal life.”
Part of the lessons involved having to keep her “cards slightly closer to the chest” than she used to: “There was a time, for example, when I’d post anything on my Instagram, and now I’m very, very careful about what I put out into the world.”
“This whole world that I was opened up to was really intimidating. Having men outside your house with cameras is super scary when you live on your own,” she continued, explaining that it was during her “very surreal” time with Pete that she experienced the paparazzi for the first time.
“There were men who would wait outside my house with cameras, and it was the same men a few times. I don’t want to go on the record and say that I was being stalked, but when you have paparazzi who are waiting outside your house, it definitely feels like that.”
You can read the full interview with Phoebe here.